Blair’s Catholic principles

The Reverend Blair continues to righteously insist that he acted ‘in good faith’ when he gave the go ahead to commit troops to the Iraq invasion. It is interesting that at the time of the invasion we were told by Mr A. Campbell that, “Mr Blair does not do God.” Another lie. Perhaps the vote in the House of Commons would have been somewhat different if MP’s knew how much faith played a part in his decision-making.

But what sort of Christian is he?  A study of his activities since leaving office reveals that his principles are deeply rooted in the acquisition of wealth. For instance: -

Property

The Blairs have no fewer than six houses, including a £6m country pile and a five-storey mansion in London’s Connaught Square worth £4m. This is the man who built his property empire whilst he was PM but his expenses records were shredded when he left office. Very untransparent – very convenient.

Jobs

The main source of income, apart from his lectures for which he charges up to a quarter of a million a time, is £2.5m from the investment bank JP Morgan Chase (according to the BBC’s business editor, Robert Peston). He is also paid £500,000 by Zurich Financial, and the Daily Telegraph recently revealed that Tony Blair is also taking up a six-figure post with the luxury goods firm Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. Selling handbags and luggage. And he is the Middle East Peace envoy when he has a spare minute. Incredible but true.

Holidays

“The Blairs were always suckers for a good freebie, spending holidays in the homes of pop stars like Cliff Richard or Bee Gee Robin Gibb. The couple have recently been the recipients of lavish hospitality from Bernard Arnault, the owner of LVMH and France’s richest man. The pair have had the use of his many homes and his yacht, Amadeus, in the Mediterranean.”

As Iain Macwhirter concluded in his Sunday Herald article (from which much of the information in this post is taken) last week,

“What hope is there for a departure from the bankers’ economic policies that led to the financial crash if one of Wall Street’s key lobbyists is given free access to Number 10?

Tony Blair has crossed the line; he is part of a discredited global financial elite who have made greed a virtue and turned social irresponsibility into philosophy of life. He was essentially a clever salesman who seized control of Labour in its darkest hour, all those years ago, and turned it into a vehicle for his own social self-advancement. He led Britain to economic disaster at home and military disaster abroad. He has learned nothing and understood nothing.” S. Herald 24/01/2010

Of equal concern following his appearance at the Chilcot enquiry yesterday was the way the decision to go to war was made with minimum input from the Cabinet, the Civil Service and contrary legal opinions were dismissed. It was a very bad day for democracy but oddly it may well turn out to be a very good one as a light has been shone on the deeply deficient way we are governed. Shine a light indeed.